A Short History of British Psychology 1840-1940

Originally published in 1964, the story of the development of psychology in Great Britain had never been told. In the 1840s, when John Stuart Mill wrote about ‘Psychology’ in his treatise on Logic, the word was hardly known to the British public. Today the subject is taught in nearly every university, and psychologists are professionally employed by many public bodies.

The British contribution to the dramatic rise of psychology was an exceptionally important one, and had been shamefully neglected not only by the public but by British psychologists themselves. The tendency at the time to regard the subject through American spectacles distorted the role of British pioneers. Significant British contributions had been almost completely forgotten – those of Carpenter, Lewes, Spalding and Lubbock for example – and the work of men such as Hughlings Jackson and Romanes had been greatly undervalued. Not the least important feature of the book is its reassessment of the work of many individuals.

In relating the rise of psychology and its application to concomitant developments in medicine, physiology, biology, sociology, anthropology and statistics and to changes in the prevailing philosophic climate, the author shows psychology to be an integral part of the scientific, intellectual and social history of the past century.